Since they’re 1st-level, they can’t possible have “Skill Focus,” since you don’t receive your first feat until 2nd level. Let’s assume the maximum possible bonus otherwise — training plus a racial modifier, for a total of +7. The average result of a d6 is 3.5, so we’re going to assume that the character gets a 10 each week.

Now, I mentioned in a previous post that task completion should be set the same way monster hit points are, and I think we’re going to assume that crafting an artifact is a 30th-level task. The average 30th-level monster has 264 hit points.

Gaining one level and taking a hypothetical “Skill Focus” feat would improve the average time to about 20 weeks for crafting an “artifact.” But what does it mean?

Really, what does it mean?

For starters, that’s 20-26 weeks spent working on a single project — about half a year devoted to the creation of a single, potent magical item. It’s possible for even a low-level character to do, but it would consume the majority of their time.

Sure, they’d have time to eat, sleep, and perform basic functions necessary to life — but working on this item would be their “job.” They might be able to pull off a second job, but I think we’d need fatigue rules or something at that point.

And what about the item itself, when the character has completed their task? Can we really call it an artifact when all is said and done? Honestly, I don’t see why not — but how powerful an artifact can a 1st-level character create?

Probably a 1st-level artifact.

Okay, so let’s say we got up to some shenanigans, and there were feats or class features that could be used to artificially inflate a character’s level for the purpose of item creation — let’s say a 1st-level smith could hypothetically fashion a 5th-level item — well, then they might want to start adventuring, don’t you think?

Ultimately, I think I will set the bar higher for certain things like “artifact creation” — let’s say a hypothetical “40th-level” task for something like that — it only increases the “task goal” to like, 344. That increases the time spent working on an artifact to about 33 weeks for a 1st-level character — only a difference of about 2 months.

Discussion (6) ¬

I haven’t figured that out yet. The question popped into my head after I played Skyrim for a couple hours this morning — games in the Elder Scrolls series seem made to be broken, and I thought about how players might try to “break” the kinds of systems I had in place.

The above question popped into my head — “what if a 1st-level character wanted to craft an artifact?”

Certainly, 6 months is a significant investment of time for a PC, and if the rest of the game is taken into account, the rest of the party can either help with the item’s creation or do their own significant “non-combat stuff” in the meantime.

One of the things I’ve been trying to work out actually, is what it would take to create say, a “Linking Book” a la Myst. That might be an example of an artifact that could be created at 1st level. The series managed to be epic in scope without verging too far into “Sue-ish” territory, which says to me that a Linking Book ought to be a “Legit” Artifact that could be created by a low-level PC.

Typically, I’d think that items created would be limited to the abilities of the individual creating it regardless of the amount of time the individual was willing to devote.

For instance, a 3rd level MU can create an ‘artifact’ in the following way in a day and a half: Take the femur of some fallen foe. Lash a crystal to each end with some leather cord and cast continual light on one and continual darkness on the other. Small leather bags with drawstrings cover each end until use. The magic user now has a “Vile Bonestaff of Day and Night”.

Part of my problem with most magic items (particularly the mundane ones) is that there’s no explanation as to how they’re created and where they come from. A non-magic dude isn’t going to make a magic sword without magic help. If anything the concept of “masterwork” (which I like) introduced in 3e kind of plays to the idea that the best a non-magic craftsman can do is create something that is beautiful and of fantastic quality (+1) but (unless silver) not going to do anything against aetherial foes.

As for a linking book, I can see how it could be created, but not necessarily by a low-level character. One would simply need a book, a portal/teleport spell and permanency. Still, you’re talking about a pretty powerful magic artifact. Now, it COULD be done if you allow for high-level scrolls. Non-standard artifacts at best represent uniquely combined or uniquely implemented magic abilities. Finding the components to create those artifacts might be more interesting than simply making it a function of time.

a character wants a linking book:
-find someone with ideas on how to plausibly create it
-get a list of supplies needed (in this case, a book, scrolls of teleportation and permanency)
-acquire said supplies
-work out the combination and create the item.

Just some thoughts. Or at least if I were a player, that’s the approach I’d take. If 1st level PCs were able to develop artifacts at no real cost other than devoting time, players might argue that they should be able to start out armed to the teeth simply because they’d devoted so much of their lives before the start of the campaign to making wondrous items.

You make a good point about limiting the capabilities of an artifact to the abilities of the creator — and given the premise that “ritual-casting” (the quadratic part usually associated with magic users) will be divorced from character class, so it would make sense to limit the effects of artifacts to particular rituals the PCs may have picked up in their journeys.

The minimum level for performing a ritual is 3rd — which would suggest that even the best mundane smiths won’t be able to create anything rivaling a magic item unless they’re at least 3rd level. (Note: Magic users will default to the 4e route of at-will/encounter powers for combat. Anyone can use rituals.)

Somehow what you just said there gave me an epiphany which might explain the plethora of mundane magical items. What is a +1 but a “bless” type buff? Any low level clerics (and dang near anyone else by 4e, I’m guessing) can use some sort of buffs like that. All they’d have to do is get the buff to ‘stick’ to something. And it might not need something like permanency at all. As a fan of the ‘magic runoff’ theory, I could totally imagine that after a cleric has blessed a group so many times, maybe some of that magic starts to accumulate on the items of blessed individuals, and items might undergo some sort of apotheosis provided that they’re of decent enough quality and have been in possession of individuals who are repeatedly being enchanted time and again.